


storm front

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Series: rareprompts [25]
Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, M/M, Vignettes, fragments, kinda fluid POV, rin cameo, slightly post-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 00:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4585251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei spends his days measuring the distance to the sun with a ruler.</p><p>Sousuke spends his measuring everything else, even if he doesn't realise it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	storm front

**Author's Note:**

> For Kenpai, who asked for SouRei. I wanted to explore a couple of things in this, like Rei saying in S2E14 that he always wanted to talk to Sousuke as a fellow butterfly swimmer, the [umbrella backstory](http://donamoeba.tumblr.com/post/111286911109/translation-long-slow-distance-of-that-summer) and their other common points - I hope you like it!

Rei's never forgotten what it's like to be vulnerable. He tries, and fails, because it seems he's always running up against it anyway.

Sousuke, who's shored himself up in weathered steel, has never permitted himself to know at all.

 

* * *

 

 **Matsuoka R.**  
yo, sousuke  
need a favour

 **Yamazaki S.  
** What?

 **Matsuoka R.  
** can you help rei with butterfly

 **Yamazaki S.  
** Why does he need help?

 **Matsuoka R.  
** he asked me. i can't do shit from australia. can you meet him?

 **Yamazaki S.  
** I guess.

 

* * *

 

"I was really happy when you said yes! Thank you."

"Why? Didn't you want Rin to help you?"

"Actually - "

Rei takes off his glasses, folds them neatly and puts them down on the bench. He snaps on his goggles. Sousuke, leaning casually against the wall, blurs into focus, all hard lines and taut, tense muscle.

"I hoped that you would, Sousuke-san. But I didn't know how to reach you directly. And I thought that if I told Rin-san I wanted _you_ to teach me instead of him, it might hurt his feelings. So I asked, and then I said, if it was too difficult for him to show me long distance, maybe I could trouble Sousuke-san…"

Sousuke's eyes widen. Just a little. Rei, who always pays attention to the fractions and the millimetres, notices.

"Was your mind always this twisted, Ryugazaki?" Sousuke asks.

"Someday," says Rei proudly, "I'll tell you about the time I tailed Rin-san. Like a spy."

Sousuke raises an eyebrow.

"I bet Rin never noticed," he says.

Rei grins smugly.

He straightens, stretches his arms overhead and to one side, then the other. Feels the setting sun on his back along with Sousuke's gaze.

"Sousuke-san… 'Rei' is fine," he finds himself saying quickly, before he gets awkward about it.

"Well then, Rei - "

Sousuke steps towards the poolside, and stands near the starting blocks, arms crossed.

"Let's get started. Swim me a lap."

 

* * *

 

Rei spends his days measuring the distance to the sun with a ruler.

Sousuke spends his measuring everything else, even if he doesn't realise it. Rei does. Sousuke's eyes miss nothing, not the roll of his shoulders, the timing of his kicks or the raised height of his upper body. His instruction is as incremental as the way he unboxes himself.

He comes round once, twice a week, after he's done at university for the day; sometimes, they get dinner at the mall afterwards.

"It's my treat," Rei insists.

And to Sousuke, the sun's out of reach now, so he doesn't bother reaching that far. It takes him longer than he should - longer than Rin would have - to ask the obvious question.

He throws it out like an afterthought, like it hasn't been on his mind at all. "Why me, Rei?"

"I thought I could learn a lot from you, Sousuke-san, because you're really skilled at theory - "

"But I can't even swim anymore."

Sousuke is composed, matter-of-fact. He is unflappable in that maddening way of the strong, and he cracks open his can of cola with equanimity, his eyes never leaving Rei as he takes a sip.

(If Haruka has eyes clear as water, Sousuke has eyes deep as the ocean; that impenetrable green-blue that shifts and flickers, sometimes, with reflected light, dark on the seafloor where no one can see.)

When Rei answers, his voice bleeds with the fury of certainty, and he clenches one hand into a fist on the table.

"That doesn't matter. Sousuke-san, I think you're amazing."

Sousuke puts down his cola. Rei thinks he sees him murmur something under his breath, but then the waitress brings their food and when Rei asks about it a moment later, Sousuke dismisses his question with a nonchalant wave of his chopsticks.

 

* * *

 

Under a grey sky one afternoon, when it's too cold to swim, Rei speaks his most guarded truth.

_I know what it's like._

_What?_

_To push yourself. To feel like you have to work harder than anyone else. Because you have something to fight for. To go so hard that you - you put yourself in danger -_

_…Yeah? You do, huh?_

_Yeah. I do._

 

* * *

 

Sousuke never asks for details, so Rei doesn't give them either.

It's enough, for now, to trust in each other.

 

* * *

 

You can't outrun a storm front. Sometimes, the shadow catches up. Sometimes, it rains.

Rei never goes anywhere without an umbrella, because old habits die hard, and when he shelters them both from a sudden downpour one evening, Sousuke glances suddenly at him, a flicker of recognition in his eyes.

"What is it, Sousuke-san?"

"I thought… I remembered something…"

He pauses, brow furrowed. Shakes his head.

"No. It's nothing. Have you always worn glasses?"

Rei, caught off guard by the abrupt change in topic, stares at Sousuke blankly.

"Yes," he says. "Since I was five years old."

"Ah."

"Why do you ask?"

Sousuke shrugs, and smiles. "No reason."

They both turn to face forward. When a car passes too close to the sidewalk, Sousuke reaches an arm round Rei's shoulder to pull him in so he doesn't get splashed by the puddle.

"Watch out," he says, hand lingering a moment before it drops, slowly. His fingertips brush the back of Rei's jacket.

 

* * *

 

( _You're pretty amazing yourself, you know._

 

_Huh? Did you say something, Sousuke-san?_

_…Nothing. Let's eat._ )

 

* * *

 

Their intersections skirt the edge of possibility, form angles that defy reason. They are lone agents - Rei, the outlier who found a way in; Sousuke, the boy who left and came back _changed_ -

They've pushed their boundaries to breaking, and they're still standing here against all odds. Beside each other.

 

* * *

 

 _Look,_ Rei says, pointing. _The sky is clearing.  
_

And beyond the clouds -

_The sun._

 

 


End file.
